If you add solar panels to your home, you’ll probably get that money back when you sell—and you may even make money on the deal.
That’s the bottom line from a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study released this week. Researchers compared sale prices of solar homes in California to comparable, non-solar homes from 2000 to mid 2009. Among their findings:
* A typical residential solar panel system cost about $5 per watt during the years studied.
* Solar panels added about $5.50 per watt on average to the resale value of a home.
* The resale value of homes built with solar included increased only about $2.30 to $2.60 per watt.
* But homeowners who added solar panels to existing homes increased their resale value by over $6 per watt.
Those increased resale values are on top of any savings you’d get on your electricity bill, of course.
Despite these benefits, a lot of people are still sitting on the solar sidelines. In a difficult economy, it’s hard to come up with the money to add something to your home that isn’t essential.
Costco will soon be selling home solar panel kits
But if you’re thinking of selling your home in the next few years, adding solar might be a good short-term investment. Also, it doesn’t have to be hugely expensive. Costco recently announced it would be selling home solar panel kits, according to the Huffington Post. The kits start around $3,600 and are designed to be expandable, so you can start small and expand later. And don’t forget that home solar kits are usually eligible for federal, state, and local utility rebates and incentives.
The Solar Power Authority offers a solar ROI calculator, to give you an idea of the payback for adding solar panels to your home.
Bottom line: Going green doesn’t have to cost you a lot of green.
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San Francisco real estate expert Brendon DeSimone appears frequently on HGTV and other television networks. Follow Brendon on Twitter.
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